‘I WAS SO UPSET, CONFUSED AND LOST’
The fitness coach and MBE revisits his past in a new one-off documentary.
In the first lockdown, fitness coach Joe Wicks gained national hero status with his free online PE workouts.
Many of the letters and messages he’s received have been from parents worried about the impact of their mental-health issues on their children, which strikes a chord. When Joe was a child, his mum suffered with OCD, anxiety and eating disorders, while his dad battled depression and heroin addiction.
In Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood, Joe sets out to discover how his parents’ problems affected him as a child and shaped him as an adult. ‘I remember being so upset, confused and lost. It was really tough,’ he says.
Examining what’s being done to help kids in a similar situation, he visits Our Time – the UK’S only charity dedicated to working with children of parents with mental illness – and a school where pupils are taught about the mentalhealth issues some parents face.
‘I’ve discovered that kids should be given the chance to understand their parents’ mental-health issues,’ says Joe. ‘Children are often shielded from it, but that can create feelings of confusion if they’re not openly discussed. That could have really helped me as a kid.’
✣ Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood is on BBC1
‘IT WAS REALLY TOUGH’